it's 7pm in london. this is the world today. a historic success - that's how the us is framing its attack on iran's nuclear sites. decimating. choose your word. obliterating. destroying iran's nuclear capabilities. but iran's supreme leader comes out of hiding to say america gained nothing from the attack. our chief international correspondent has the latest from tehran. however defiant the supreme leader - the final authority here on all matters - is in public, in private he is facing some of the most difficult and dangerous decisions of his nearly

40 years at the helm. the uk government appears - set to make some concessions on its welfare bill, after more than 120 labour mps signalled they are ready to rebel. an emotional first interview with the bbc racing commentator john hunt. two of his daughters and his wife were murdered last july. also coming up on the world today. celebrity speedboats of the celebrity wedding of the year as a venice locals protest against the wedding celebrations of jeff basis and his fiancee. thousands of festivalgoers descend on worthy farm in somerset as glastonbury 2025 gets underway. welcome to the world today - an hour of international news from the bbc. and we start with the us defence secretary - pete hegseth - who has described america's military

strike's against iran's nuclear programme - as 'historically successful'. speaking at a pentagon news conference, mr hegseth mounted a robust - and occasionally angry - defence of the mission. he also attacked sections of the media for - in his words - 'fawning' over early intelligence reports on the strikes, and suggesting they showed the us attacks had limited impact. it comes after iran's supreme leader appeared on state tv - claiming victory over israel - and saying the us attacks 'failed to achieve anything significant'. more on that shortly - first here's some of what pete hegseth had to say. president trump directed the most complex and secretive military operation in history and it was a resounding success resulting in a ceasefire agreement and the end of the 12-day war. there has been a lot of discussion about what happened and what didn't happen. step back for a second. because of decisive military

action, president trump created the conditions to end the war. decimating, choose your word, obliterating, destroying, iran's nuclear capabilities. he was speaking alongside the chairman of the us joint chiefs of staff, general dan caine. he said he 'wasn't going to mark his own homework', but the massive bombs had hit their targets and their explosion had been seen. take a listen. the weapons functioned as designed, meaning they exploded. we know this through other means, intelligence means that we were visibly able to see them. and we know that the trailing jets saw the first weapons function and the pilots stated, quote, "this was the brightest "explosion that i've ever seen. "it literally looked like daylight." meanwhile - iran's supreme leader made his first appearance on state tv - since the 12 day war. he said, donald trump had 'exaggerated' the impact

of america's strikes on their nuclear facilities. translation: the president of the united states exaggerated events in unusual ways and it turns out he needed this exaggeration. anyone who has heard these words has understood there is another truth behind them. the us has failed to take action and has not achieved their intended objective. our chief international correspondent lyse doucet, who is in the iranian capital tehran. she is being allowed to report from there on condition that none of her coverage is used on the bbc's persian service, which broadcasts to the people of iran. this law from the authorities applies to all international media agencies operating in iran. she told us that citizens are starting to return to normal life in the capital.

well, it is day three of this fragile ceasefire. and while on the surface, the rhythms of this huge metropolis of tehran, ten million people, is starting to return to normal. more traffic on the streets, in the main bazaars, more of the shops are opening. more people saying that they have come back to the city, come back to their homes. they fled when the israeli bombs started falling. the internet is back, but there are still places which are still shut. and everywhere we go, whether it's cafes or parks or hospitals, government offices, everyone expresses the same worry - that this ceasefire is not going to hold, that this war is going to erupt again. lyse, we heard the first words today from the iranian leader and perhaps, as expected, playing down the significant damage from the us missile strikes. yes. a defiant speech, as expected, but it was much anticipated. this is the first speech. a pre-recorded speech

just like the last two, which aired during this current crisis in which he basically, as you heard, declared victory, and condemned the united states and emphasised, he said, the most fundamental point, he said, is that we will never surrender to the united states of america. he accused the united states of being hostile towards iran ever since the 1979 iranian revolution. and it has to be said, it's been known that he's despite an early period where he did try to open up to the united states that for years he's deeply distrusted the united states, even when his negotiators, his top diplomats, came to him in 2014 and 2015 and asked for his authority to negotiate an iran nuclear deal, he told them, i don't think you'll succeed. but for the sake of iran, i'll let you try. so when president trump pulled out of the deal under pressure from benjamin netanyahu,

it only cemented his distrust. and the events of the last few weeks have meant that distrust runs even deeper. but it has to be said that this supreme leader, who's been in power for 40 years, he is facing the most difficult and dangerous decisions of his life. we happen to watch his speech on a television set in the section of state tv that was totally devastated by an israeli bomb. the main studio, which would normally have aired that speech, was reduced to ash when a fire swept through the compound. and it is symbols like this which seem to symbolise iran's dark time. but the kind of mood you heard from the supreme leader today. and is it possible to assess how ordinary iranians are feeling about what's going on and how their leaders

are dealing with it? well, there was even a website connected to the former israeli president, who is seen as a reformist, which put out a statement saying that the leadership should listen to the people. we heard that ourselves when we went out to a concert at a landmark square, azadi square, freedom square in the centre of tehran last night, and one man said to us, "the leaders have to listen to the people. "they have to listen to what they say. "we want our freedoms." you hear from some people reiterating the defiance of the government backing the islamic leadership. others criticise the restrictions. this is a nation of 92 million people. they don't all speak the same, and they don't hesitate to speak out loud to tell you their views. and they find ways around these rules and restrictions. and this conversation is only going to intensify in the days and the weeks to come, in private and in public.

let's speak to kurt volker, former us ambassador to nato. thank you for joining us. what do you make? very different narratives as you would expect coming out from iran and the us. where are we a few days after the strikes in iran? first off let's distinguish between public narrative and reality. the iranian regime has an interest in declaring victory, showing everything has survived, showing it is as strong as ever. they will say that regardless of the facts. likewise the us administration under president trump was to portray the idea that these air strikes were wildly successful, that they completely obliterated iran's nuclear programme. that will be the narrative from them. the reality is somewhere in between. we have seen evidence of widescale destruction at the sites where the iranian nuclear

facilities are, but we don't have any realistic battle damage assessment. we do not know what happened underground, we don't know the status of the centrifuges, we don't know the status of any weaponisation programme, we don't know the location of any enriched uranium that may have been moved before these air strikes. so there's just a lot we do not know and that is the reality. both sides will portray this to create the political narrative that they want. his will to our security correspondent in the last hour who said what was interesting out of that news conference by pete hegseth the us defence of terry was the knowledge that they had been studying these iranian sites for 15 years -- the us defence secretary. this has been a plan long in the making. sure, the plans are great. i'm sure they designed the nature of the attack, the weapons to use, the bombs to use, where the bombs

should fall. i'm sure that was a well designed. i have no doubt about that. but the actual impact after the fact i don't think anyone has been able to assess yet. again, i just want to stress that the narratives are there for good reasons. but the actual reality of what the situation now is, we simply do not know. bearing in mind we simply do not know, and your words, what did we make yesterday of the nato meeting where there was such warm words, such supportive words to donald trump after these strakes which margaretta said potentially it was game changing -- mark rutte. element everyone wants to believe that this had a decisive impact on the iranian nuclear programme, it probably set it back substantially just because the facilities needed to take enriched uranium, weapon ice it and attach it to missiles, thus

facilities have been damaged so there will be some degree of disruption that will have occurred no matter what. but how substantial that is in the long term we did not know. most important thing about the nato summit is the european allies wanted to make sure donald trump felt he was valued, appreciated, that he was successful in iran and that he has also been successful in getting nato to strengthen its own defence spending and make it more balanced. so they were all about conveying a positive impression to donald trump. as always, good to talk to you, former us

welcome back to the programme.

rebels who are refusing to back his plans to reform welfare spending. the government's plan includes restricting the eligibility for personal independence payment, pip, and limiting the sickness related element of universal credit. more than 120 labour mps backed an amendment that would effectively block the bill from passing. alex forsyth reports. when it comes to welfare, the strength of feeling is clear. concern from those who could be affected by cuts on the streets and on the airwaves. bbc radio five live nicky campbell. the pip helps. it keeps me afloat. just treat us as human beings. give us a voice. talk to us, mr starmer. there are strong feelings on all sides of this issue. i know for a fact there's a lot of people who are on pip who can and should be working. the welfare, the dwp and the pips and things, they do need looking at. the government, argues

the welfare system does need reform to help people into work, but it's under real pressure over plans to kerb spending on sickness and disability benefits. today, one minister was questioned by staff at a college for disabled people who have concerns. some of the issues we've got, particularly with some of our students, is we teach them to be really independent. and yet the raise in the level of the criteria in pip actually goes against people being as independent as they possibly can be. i now call the prime minister, keir starmer. in westminster, the pressure the prime minister is minister's facing is huge. today, he changed his tone as he tries to avoid a damaging rebellion from his own mps, promising conversations, which is likely to mean concessions when it comes to reform of what he calls a broken welfare system. i know colleagues across the house are eager to start fixing that, and so am i, and that all colleagues want to get this right and so do i. we want to see reform implemented with labour values of fairness. that conversation will continue in the coming days so that we can begin making

change together on tuesday. tuesday is when a crucial vote on the government's plan is expected here. so no surprise the conservatives are trying to keep up the pressure, urging the government to go further to rein in welfare spending. with 126 of his own mps all openly undermining his authority, his government is incapable of making even the smallest changes to bring down the cost of our ever expanding welfare bill. the government's long argued it has to kerb the costs of welfare to make the system sustainable. but there are plenty here who think number ten didn't count on the scale of the pushback from labour mps, who have serious concerns about the impact on individuals. the challenge is if the government gives ground now, it could pose a problem for future budgets. this has become a serious test of keir starmer's authority. would be labour rebels

could get a phone call from the prime minister personally. what matters is whether he can convince enough of those whose minds seem set. this doesn't represent the values of the labour party, but it isn't the vote in parliament the prime minister needs to worry about. it's the vote in the country, because we all know disabled and sick people who are really struggling right now and certainly will after this legislation is put through. we need to build trust with the electorate, but to turn our back on disabled people, that would be catastrophic. behind closed doors here, the conversations will continue as the government tries to reach a compromise to salvage one of its key policies. the question is - at what cost? alex forsyth, bbc news, westminster. let's speak to our correspondent, damian grammaticas, in westminster. this was turning into a huge problem for the government. do we think compromises on the cards? absolutely, yes. we know keir starmer has said that conversations were taking place. his other senior team

have also been saying the same thing. they say that those are with a view of being able to press ahead with this on tuesday, which means those concessions have to be coming in some form, otherwise the bulk, the labour mps have the power to block this legislation. something is coming, not entirely sure what, perhaps changing some of the requirements in this legislation and promising to look again at things before the law has to be defeated -- debated further down the line and parliament because this is an initial section next week. the problem for the prime minister is he has stirred up this a deep well of discontent and ill feeling amongst many of his own mps and what may happen next week is that is dealt with for now, but deeper problems remain. and of course, at what

cost, as alex was saying, the welfare bill is large and growing and the government was hoping to at least shave off a bit off with this, and now it looks like it will not happen. you heard in the report from alex they are that many of the mps do agree that the welfare bill must be tackled. as it is the central point of the government that this welfare bill is rising at this ever-increasing rate, billions and billions being added every year and they say that is unsustainable. keir starmer says his mps do understand that. these reforms were only going to shave a little bit of that awe. it will still be rising. but concessions will come at a price. that price will have to be met by either a making savings elsewhere or the government increasing taxes down the line. difficult questions will remain. in financial terms. but difficult questions also in terms of its

own party management because he heard mps there saying that the reason this matters to them because they believe this goes to the core of what a labour government should be about and its approach to helping the disadvantage, helping the disabled and those out of work. that is shown if you would like a bedrock of which those mps do not want to move and it goes to wider questions about how the leadership of keir starmer and his grip is seen. thank you. let's speak to steven morris, campaigns officer at sense. thank you for joining us here on the programme. we were hearing about the political issues, but this is affecting, potentially, people very, very significantly. can you just explain for those of us who may not know, exactly what pip is

and why it is so important to so many people? absolutely. pip is a benefit that can help with the additional costs associated with being disabled. so a person may be eligible for pip if their disability or health condition means they have difficulty in carrying out certain everyday tasks or getting about because of their condition and i think an important point to make here because it is one that gets lost is the eligibility for pip is not dependent on whether someone is working or not. so you can be in work and claiming pip, you could be looking for work and claiming pip or you could be unable to work and claiming pip. that is an important point to make is often the government justifies cutting pip in terms of supporting more disabled people into work. what our research has shown is that people are

extremely anxious about the consequences of losing pip, if these cuts go ahead. our research found that 61% of disabled people that we spoke to said that they would not be able to cope financially if pip was taken away from them. what level of money are we talking about in terms of the concerns about what the amounts of money that may be taken? so it will be potentially hundreds of pounds a month from individuals. so a significant amount of money. because they are looking at changing the eligibility criteria for the daily living component of pip. so it will be harder, if these cuts go ahead, for individuals to meet that threshold. sewer

looking at potentially hundreds of pounds of month. i really appreciate your time. as we were hearing there, that vote to do to take place on tuesday so clearly lots of discussion still to come. thank you for your time. the bbc racing commentator john hunt, says he still talks daily to his wife and two daughters who were murdered last july at their home in hertfordshire. the three women were killed by his daughter louise's ex boyfriend kyle clifford who's now serving three life sentences in jail. john hunt and his surviving daughter amy told victoria derbyshire that they wanted to speak out now because they didn't want their loved ones to be defined by death. the hunt family was a very happy one until it was torn apart by the actions of kyle clifford, louise's ex-boyfriend. in july last year, he fatally

stabbed mother carole and shot louise and her sister hannah with a crossbow. now a year on, john hunt says louise and kyle clifford's relationship wasn't coercive or controlling, despite some reports. he never once hit her. he was in the house an awful lot in that 18 months and never heard raised voices once. bearing in mind what you've already told us, was there anything in his behaviour that suggested he could have been capable of what was to come? no. we were under no illusions at the end that kyle clifford was not that nice of a person. you know... i want to put it very bluntly now. did we have any indication that this man was capable of stabbing my mother? tying louise up? raping louise? shooting louise?

and shooting hannah? absolutely not. john still lives in the family home, and he and amy both feel connected to carol, hannah and louise. from the moment i wake up, i say good morning to each of them. i talk to them all every day, and then as i close my eyes at night, i... i chat to them as well. so yeah, very close all the time. always. yeah. and it's, you know, it's the three of them genuinely, i wish everyone could see now, but they were the best of us. john's found support returning to work as a racing commentator. and the bond that he and amy share has been vital in helping each other through the most traumatic of times. victoria derbyshire, bbc news. for viewers in the uk, you can watch the full

interview - standing strong - the john and amy hunt interview on bbc one and iplayer tonight from 9pm. the next half hour we will take you to last and barry and venice for the billionaire wedding but for the moment let's go to north korea because they are opening a beach resort that its leader hopes will boost to tourism in the secretive communist regime according to state media. what does it look like? here we go. it will open to domestic tourists in july, six years after it was due to be completed. it is unclear when or if it will welcome foreign tourists. state media says the resort can accommodate up to 20,000 visitors, occupying a two and half mile stretch of beach with hotels, restaurants, shopping malls and a water park. north korea is amongst the poorest countries in the world but experts believe the new attraction may work as a way for the country to generate revenue. quite fascinating. do

you fancy adding it to your holiday regime,